Open seat a dilemma for Slidell council

Boys will be boys. In this case, the boys club in question is the ruling majority of the Slidell City Council. For quite a while now, the members of this group have called most of the shots when it comes to council business -- and have served as a collective thorn in the side of Mayor Ben Morris.

However, last Saturday's special election for a vacant at-large council seat portends an adjustment to that balance of power in the Camellia City. We're not talking a "Back To the Future"-caliber rift in the space/time continuum here, but it is enough of a blip to cause the power brokers some unease.

As plans began to coalesce this week for winner Kim Harbison to make the transition from district council member to at-large representative, her adversaries on the council were scrambling to figure out how to react.

Harbison's new role in the at-large seat is not the issue. Her replacement in the District F seat is.

The election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Councilman Kevin Kingston last year drew just two candidates -- Harbison, one of three faithful supporters of the mayor on the nine-member council, and Ray Canada, a prominent member of what might best be described as the council's anti-Morris faction.

Canada and his like-minded colleagues have sparred with the feisty mayor, especially on budgetary issues, over the past seven years. When the special election for the at-large seat turned out to be a head-to-head confrontation between Canada and Harbison, the mayor appeared only too happy to throw his support behind the councilwoman who has supported him.

Harbison is expected to take office as councilwoman at-large Tuesday night, just before the next regular meeting of the City Council. When that happens, the district seat she has held since 2002 will become vacant.

Recently enacted council rules provide that council members appoint someone to fill that vacancy until next year, when the current council term expires. Slidell municipal elections are scheduled for next spring, and the next four-year term for the new mayor and council will begin on July 1, 2010.

The appointee will not be permitted to run in the 2010 election.

Harbison would like to designate her own replacement, who no doubt could be counted on to share her political persuasions. That courtesy might be afforded to her under other circumstances, but the rancor that has typified council relations of late makes that unlikely. But the issue of what to do in the alternative -- to preserve the status quo of the council majority -- is what has those council members so flummoxed this week.

Just a few months ago, they found it easy to welcome banker and former council member Marti Livaudais back into the fold as a place-holder for the at-large seat until the special election could be held. There was no application process, just a quick, informal consensus among council members to recommend her to the governor, who made that interim appointment.

Not that there was anything wrong with their choice. Quite the contrary: Livaudais was both well-liked and well-respected during her 12 years on the council as an elected official who was simultaneously progressive and level-headed and who was in politics for all the right reasons.

Had the council solicited resumes to fill that temporary vacancy, they could not have found a more capable and appealing candidate than Marti Livaudais.

This week, though, members of the council's ruling majority found themselves in an odd place -- having the ability to decide who should replace Harbison as a district council member, but not being able to come up with any candidate from her district who might vote with them, instead of her, on critical issues.

By week's end, the council issued a public invitation for resumes from residents of District F who might be interested in serving on the council for the next year.

When council members get around to interviewing Harbison's potential replacements, it should make for an interesting line of questioning.

. . . . . . .

Ron Thibodeaux is the St. Tammany bureau chief. He can be reached at rthibodeaux@timespicayune.com or 985.898.4834.